TO THE EDITORS OFPUT PRAVDY

Written:Written before March 23, 1914Published:First published in 1956 in the JournalKommunistNo. 5.

      Sent from Cracow to St. Petersburg.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      pages273-275.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

DearColleagues,

Iwelcome your paper in every way, and particularly
its obvious improvement. At last the literary side is
beginning to be well organised! The next job is thebusinessside.
You must not leave the question of subscribers “
unpublished” either: you should announce their number,
otherwise you cannot rise from the small circle level to
full-scale organisation, from a private enterprise to a collective
one.

Norcan I pass over an obvious mistake in No. 22, where
side by side with the correct resolution from the Vyborg
workers (on Buryanov) you have, without comment from
the editors, a longer and disgustingly double-faced
resolution from the Zurich
group.[2]Pravda’sword is law; its
silence tends to confuse the workers; its abstention sows
bewilderment.

WithBuryanov one must be “as wise as a serpent”,
but the editorial board has departed from such wisdom.
We praise himonlyfor leaving the liquidators, and not
at all for lone-wolf “independence”. In this the liquidators
areright, and there is no greater danger for a politician in
the struggle than to take up thewrongposition.

Yetthe Zurich groupsupportBuryanov in his erroneous,
false, double-faced position! And we give them a platform—
what for? Knowing that the Zurich group are aminorityabroad! Knowing that we cannot makeallthe groups
abroad express their stand inPravda!

Buryanovshould be made to understand and feel the
falseness of his attitude. You have left the liquidators?
Good.

Youhave proposed equality? Good.

Whatthen? It is time to make a choice.We will not
support youin double-dealing (the pendulum game). The
liquidators are attacking you as an “independent
Social-Democrat”:they are right, and we shall not defend you.
Here is a reasonable period for you, here is assistance
during that period (tacit, with speeches, etc.),but no more
than that. Either you make your choice (within 2 or 4
weeks)—or you getnomore help.

Thatis the only way to act. Otherwise in theimmediate
future(both at the Vienna Congressand
earlier[3])
Buryanov’s stand will dousharm,and people will be justified
in telling usthat we are supporting an “independent”.

Theeditorial board must find an occasion to say
(1) that
the Vyborg workers are right, not the Zurich group;
(2)
that, apart from a section of those abroad (Zurich),no onein Russia has approved or will approve “independence”.

Thismust be done.

Allthe best, and wishing the paper every kind of
improvement and success!

P.S.Within a month, Buryanov will say: the Zurich
group supported me, andonlythe workers of Vyborg
condemned me! And we shall not have had general mass
supportforthe Vyborg group. But that is just what we need
most now.

Ifyou “give Buryanov a free hand” and your support,
he will consolidate his positionagainstus, and that would
be a crime against the will of the majority of the workers
and against the “Marxist whole”.

P.S.Could you please send No. 2 ofNasha Zaryaas
quickly as possible, when it comes out, for a reply to L. 
Martov inProsveshcheniye?

P.P.S.Please show this letter to the paper’s contributors
who are in the R.S.D.L. Duma group.

Canyou send me Milyukov’s article inRusskiye
Vedomostiwhere he speaks about the tactics of refusing to
believe in a peaceable outcome?

Thelost book has been found.Insist on non-abridgement.

Aboutthe paper, I repeat that the improvement is
tremendous. (The same comments from everywhere.) All the
best. Laissez-nous écrire plus souvent l’opinionet les
directives(les commandes même) du
rédacteur![1]

[1]Havethem inform us more frequently of the editor’s opinionand directives(nay, his orders)!—Ed.

[2]Theresolution of a group of workers in the Vyborg district, “On
the Withdrawal of Comrade Buryanov from the Seven”, and the
“Open Letter to A. F. Buryanov”, signed by the Zurich group
for the promotion of the R.S.D.L.P.

Intheir resolution the Vyborg workers welcomed Buryanov’s
withdrawal from the Seven, as fresh evidence of its political
bankruptcy, but censured his neutralist stand as being incorrect.
The Zurich group, mostly Mensheviks, assessed this as a major
step towards the unification of the two Social-Democratic groups
in the Duma. The two documents appeared inPut PravdyNo. 22,
February 26, 1914.

[3]Acongress of the Second International set for Vienna in 1914 and
a congress of the R.S.D.L.P. then being prepared. Neither took
place because of the outbreak of the war.